The BBVA Rising Stars Challenge will be televised Friday live on TNT at 9 p.m. ET and also will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio, while NBA.com will make live audio available to fans in multiple languages."

I started the fake rumor of Pekovic making it (though I did say it was a fake rumor). I like Derrick Favors a lot as a prospect, but Pekovic has been better as of late. He should have gotten some props. Still, Favors is more fun to watch in an All-Star game.

The Miami HEAT’s recipe for success in 2011-12 was anything but complicated. Erik Spoelstra’s crew yielded just 97.1 points per 100 possessions (fourth in the NBA) and held opponents to a 43.3 percent shooting mark from the field, which meant there were plenty of opportunities for the HEAT to turn a bad shot into two easy points.

But for all the times we saw a Miami fastbreak punctuated by a one-handed dunk by LeBron James, it still wasn’t enough for Spoelstra. The HEAT ranked just 14th in fast break points in 2011-12 and were tied for 14th in pace (possessions per game). It may have seemed like the HEAT were on an endless fast break, but the numbers show that pedal is still far from the metal in that regard.

“I hope to play faster,” he told the Jorge Sedano Show on Miami’s WQAM, as quoted by Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “We turned it up a gear last year and I think we have the personnel to hopefully go even faster. And I think with a normal training camp and a full season, we can build that habit a little bit more.”

So in those rare moments when the defense has caught up with the Heat fast break, James, Wade, Bosh or point guards Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers can now kick it back to Allen as the defense’s momentum carries them toward the basket.

But which teams will be the league’s worst this coming year? Charlotte set a record for futility in the shortened 2011-2012 season by winning only 10.6% of their games, the worst single-season winning percentage in the history of the league, but despite all the flak Bobcats owner Michael Jordan has gotten during the offseason for that putrid on-court performance, it’s pretty much impossible for the ‘Cats to repeat that stunning display of mediocrity.

Despite all of the personnel changes shooting guard Lou Williams, the Hawks’ marquee free agent signing this past summer, believes the team isn’t in rebuild mode, but sort of a transitional restructuring period in the first year of general manager Danny Ferry’s tenure.

You can’t put too much stock in a preseason game as it is an entirely different environment, but growth from game to game is always a nice development. With a majority of the preseason left to play, it will be on head coach Doc Rivers to make sure he puts Lee in spots where he will be most comfortable.jyuj56

I always felt Lee would be the type of player that would fit in seamlessly with a new team, especially a team with championship aspirations. He doesn’t always need the ball in his hands and has always been a willing defender, dating back to his days at Western Kentucky.bsgf3434

The Houston Rockets tied up one more piece of unfinished business on Saturday night, trading disgruntled Kevin Martin to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a deal that landed James Harden in Houston. The Rockets also send Jeremy Lamb and future draft considerations to Oklahoma City. The Thunder also send Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward to Houston in the trade.[po9[8908

The onus is now on Harden to prove that he is a max player. He’s a good player, yes, and until he choked in the NBA Finals last season he was quite a force for the Thunder. The reality, however, is that Harden is not currently a max player, and unless he takes several steps forward this season his next contract will not reflect a maximum offer. Houston is the perfect place for him to prove he should get that kind of consideration, as the Rockets are team lacking veteran direction at the moment.i90p89079